Raise a Flap for Democracy

Chicago Reader, a pioneer of the weekly alternative press, is one of the largest and most successful AAN publications, recognized throughout the industry for both editorial excellence and advertising impact. It publishes an average of 100 pages per week in...

More by Martha Bayne

The 18 stories collected in the anthology Havana Noir are nothing if not messy. The Havana reflected in its pages is coldly violent and explosively loving. It's vibrant, brutal, amoral, sordid, romantic, idealistic, pragmatic, and gleefully ambiguous.

The "tea baggers," as they're commonly called, aren't united by any clear political belief or objective, which makes it difficult to describe them. But they're all angry about something, and for now that's enough.

These are the moments a City Hall reporter lives for: My girlfriend and I were having dinner at a downtown restaurant recently, and we couldn't help but overhear the couples in the next booth kvetching about Chicago's parking meter lease deal.